The EU to phase out imports of Russian gas
On Wednesday, MEPs are set to approve a new law banning imports of Russian natural gas, to protect the EU’s energy security from weaponisation by the Russian Federation.
The draft law was provisionally agreed between Parliament and Council negotiators on 3 December 2025. Spot-market Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be banned from the EU once the regulation enters into force in early 2026. Pipeline gas imports will be phased out by 30 September 2027. The new law also establishes penalties for member states to enforce against operators in the event of infringements.
The debate will take place on Tuesday morning.
Background
This legislative proposal comes in response to Russia’s systematic weaponisation of energy supplies, a pattern documented over nearly two decades and escalating with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The 2022 invasion came with further deliberate market manipulation, including Gazprom’s unprecedented underfilling of EU storage facilities and abrupt halts to pipelines, causing energy prices to spike to up to eight times their pre-crisis levels.
